


I'll Stop Breathing Too

by butyoumight



Category: Ressha Sentai ToQger, 烈車戦隊トッキュウジャー | Ressha Sentai Tokkyuuger
Genre: Contest Entry, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-15
Updated: 2014-04-15
Packaged: 2018-01-19 11:40:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1468129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/butyoumight/pseuds/butyoumight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>‘Cause I’ll never fade away, If I steal the fire from your city nights</i>. A late-night talk between Right and Hikari.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'll Stop Breathing Too

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [Kisaragi-Gentarou’s Golden Week Tokusatsu Giveaway Challenge](http://kisaragi-gentarou.tumblr.com/post/81279481858/kisaragi-gentarous-golden-week-tokusatsu-giveaway)!
> 
> Title and summary lyrics from _Burn Bright_ by My Chemical Romance.

Hikari wasn't the best sleeper. He tried! He'd go off to the boy's sleep car with Right and Tokacchi at the end of the night, brush his teeth and change into sleep clothes, and climb the ladder to the upper bunk on the left wall, the one above Right's. 

And he usually fell asleep well enough, but it would never last long. 

For one thing, Tokacchi and Right both snored. Hikari couldn't quite tell if this was something he remembered about them, or that he only knew from more recent experience. For all he knew, they hadn't been like that when they were kids. Or maybe he'd never shared a room with them before. It wasn't one of the memories that was coming back like some of the others. 

Not that Hikari was remembering much at all, and _that_ was what _kept_ him up, if the chorus of their snores woke him from a shallow, dreamless doze. 

Sometimes he'd lie there in the dark, staring at the ceiling and trying to trick himself into falling back to sleep, like by counting sheep (or Shadows). Sometimes he'd even manage it, when Tokacchi's snorting breaths finally evened out into enough of a rhythm that they blended with the sounds of the train. 

Tonight wasn't looking to be one of those nights, and with a weary sigh, Hikari rolled off his bunk, landing with as little sound as possible; braced foot-knee-hand. 

From there, like some previous nights, he took to wandering the length of the train. Up near the front, just behind the engine. He found Conductor and Ticket dozing, Conductor leaning back against the wall, and Ticket resting on his shoulder. Hikari smirked to himself, thinking of what a grand opportunity Right would find this. But Right wasn't here, and all for the better, really, so he moved on.

Further down he startled Wagon as she was supposedly cleaning the bathroom car. Really, she was taking more pictures of herself. He apologized profusely, mostly because he knew that was exactly what she wanted from him, and then he continued on his way.

In the end, as always, he ended up in the dining car, where they spent most of the daytime, as long as they weren't pulled into a station, and even sometimes when they were. Their base of operations, sort of. 

Only this time, for the first time in the limited number of times Hikari had made these nighttime pilgrimages... the dining car wasn't empty.

“Right?” The door closed after Hikari as he entered the car, and he moved nearer to the table where Right was sitting, head down as he focused on... something. 

Right looked up from whatever it was that he was doing. He put his hand over the piece of paper, and Hikari had to wonder if it was a casual gesture, or more purposeful. Tough to tell, with Right. 

“Oh, Hikari!” 

“I thought you were asleep.” Hikari considered for a moment, then sat down across from Right. Apart from the piece of paper that Right was still covering with his hand, the table also held a nearly empty bottle of coffee milk, and a plate with half a piece of chocolate cake on it. 

“You too!” Right grinned, and, noticing Hikari's eyes lingering on the plate, reached across with his other hand to nudge it closer. “I wanted a snack, I sleep better when my stomach is full, but I forgot to take any extra before we went to bed. So I tracked Wagon down, but cake is a bit messier than an onigiri, so I didn't want to bring it back to bed. So I thought I'd just eat here. You want some?”

Hikari smiled, shaking his head. “Right?”

“Yeah?”

“Why didn't you just get an onigiri?” 

Right blinked once, his eyes widening slightly as if this was an entirely unexplored concept. “Oh. I didn't even think of that! She offered cake, so I got cake, but now that you point it out, I'm sure she could have gotten me an onigiri instead, if I'd asked. Or a sandwich, though I don't think I'd eat a sandwich in bed either...” 

“Right?” Hikari said again, cutting him off gently, and then when Right's words trailed off, Hikari gestured at the paper. “What were you writing?”

“Hm?” Right looked down at the paper, then up at Hikari again. He grinned, that wide all-his-teeth-showing smile that also made his eyes scrunch up into tiny little crescents. It was infectious, and Hikari had to stifle the grin that threatened to respond on his own lips. 

“It's really nothing, Hikari.”

“Am I supposed to believe that? If it was nothing, you wouldn't have hidden it from me.” 

“I'm not hiding it! Or, I wasn't! Not on purpose...”

“ _Right_...” 

Right shifted awkwardly in his seat, quelling under Hikari's pointed stare. “Ahh, Hikari. You always see through me. As expected from the ToQgers' shadow leader!”

Hikari rolled his eyes, but this time he couldn't restrain the smile. “I don't know where you all got it into your heads to start calling me that.” He sat back, making a casual gesture. “Gimme the paper.” 

Right sighed, but it wasn't a disappointed sigh, or even a frustrated sigh. Just a casual, if a bit more forceful than average, exhale. Then he slid the paper across the table and lifted his hand away.

Hikari wondered if anything ever _really_ bothered Right. Except for hunger, of course. He took the paper and flipped it around so he could scan it.

“Right, what is this?”

Right shrugged, tugging his cake back a little closer to himself and picking up the fork. “I told you, nothing important.”

“Is this a list of things you've remembered so far? About us?”

Right looked up, meeting his eyes, and shrugged one shoulder. “Thinking about it too much makes me feel more awake, not to mention hungry. So I thought if I wrote it all down, I'd get it out of my head that way.”

“It's not a bad idea.” Hikari pushed the page back across the table, and Right took it back with a grin, spinning it again and glancing over it with an approving nod before turning his attention back to his cake. 

“But, hey, Right..?”

Right looked up with the fork half-way to his mouth, blinking curiously. “What is it?”

“Why didn't you want to show me that?”

“Oh, that.” Right shoved the bite of cake into his mouth and chewed thoughtfully, bobbing his head from side to side. Hikari waited patiently. If Right wasn't answering with his mouth full, he must be really thinking about it. And if he was really thinking about it, that meant he'd been acting more on instinct than forethought. 

Pretty typical of him, really. 

“I guess...” Right stabbed the fork into the cake again, but then set it down with a little huff. “I guess I didn't want you to be sad, that you don't remember as much as I do.” 

This surprised Hikari, and he sat back, stuffing his hands into his pockets. He found his kendama there, and he pulled it out for something to do, something to focus on while he sorted the number of feelings that were conflicting in his mind, triggered by Right's words. 

When he looked up again, it was to find Right really _staring_ at him, with his eyes wide and imploring, half of his bottom lip pinched between his teeth. He looked _nervous_ , and all of the conflict fled Hikari, flowed out of him like a dam had opened. He hated seeing Right look like that, when he was usually so confident. And he obviously meant well, he _always_ meant well.

“Hey, don't. It's okay. Thank you. For thinking about my feelings. But...”

“But..?” Right relaxed, just a little bit, his hand creeping towards the handle of his fork again. 

“But you don't have to be worried about that. I'm not sad! Not really. Frustrated would be a better word, but that's not your fault. And it's good that you're remembering things!” 

Right picked up the fork, and half the remaining cake came with it. Right shoved it into his mouth without a second thought, and spoke with his mouth full. “You think so?”

Hikari took this as a good sign, that Right had shrugged off that momentary tension just as easily as he had. 

“Yeah, I really do. I'm sure our memories will come back, all of them.”

Right grinned again, that infectious smile, and this time Hikari didn't check his impulse to respond with a smile of his own. “That's what I like to hear! You can see it, right?”

“Our final stop?” Hikari laughed a little, shaking his head. “I guess I can.” 

“Great!” Right stabbed his fork fiercely into the last of the cake and lifted it from the plate like a salute. “We'll beat the Shadow Line, and return all of the stations back to normal, _and_ save our hometown!” 

Hikari nodded. “We will.” 

With that tacit approval, Right shoved the last of the cake into his mouth, and shot Hikari a closed-mouth grin as he stood up, sweeping the empty plate and the bottle into his arms to take to the trash. 

Hikari stood up, feeling lighter somehow after this little exchange, and when Right came back from disposing of his garbage, Hikari grabbed his arm gently to slow him down. 

“Hold still for a second, Right.” He rocked forward, lifting one hand. “You have some icing, just here...” 

He spread his fingers across Right's cheek, dragging his thumb along Right's bottom lip to wipe off the stray sugar. 

Everything seemed to get very quiet, even the sounds from the train traveling down the tracks seemed to fade into the background, when Right's tongue darted out, curling briefly around Hikari's thumb before he could pull it away.

Not that he was trying. 

“Ah.”

“Oh.”

Their eyes met. Hikari couldn't seem to draw his hand away from Right's face, and Right wasn't moving either. Hikari wasn't even entirely sure either of them were breathing for a moment.

Then Right bent down, just a bit. The shift made Hikari's elbow bend sharply, but he didn't pull away, even when Right's lips, full and soft, pressed firmly against his. 

They held that position firmly for a moment, and afterward Hikari wasn't quite sure if he pulled away first, or if Right did. They gasped in tandem, anyway. Hikari's eyes focused on Right's throat, the bob of his Adam's apple as he straightened his back. Hikari wet his lips, and there was a faint lingering taste of chocolate and coffee there. 

Now it was his turn to swallow. 

“Um.” Right looked briefly nervous again, until he smiled, but Hikari thought he knew him well enough to spot the lingering anxiety lurking in the depths of his eyes.

“It's okay. Are you... We should get some sleep.” Hikari locked gazes with Right seriously for a moment, trying to impress upon him how important it was that _he_ wasn't uncomfortable. “We can talk some more tomorrow?”

Right leaned back a little, then nodded sharply. “Yeah. Let's do that.” He grinned, smaller than his usual, and without his teeth showing, but it was genuine and natural enough that Hikari knew he wasn't faking it. 

“Lead the way.” Hikari gestured, and Right turned to head back towards the sleeping car.

Hikari made sure to pick up Right's list of the things he had remembered before following him.


End file.
